College: Still Option For High School?

Report Says Costs Not As High As Believed

February 12, 2002|By RACHEL GOTTLIEB; Courant Staff Writer

A study on converting Capital Community College for use as a temporary city school while Hartford Public High School is renovated concludes that the project could be time-consuming and costly -- but significantly less expensive than state officials have previously asserted.

The previously undisclosed study, commissioned by the state Department of Public Works, shows that the cost of bringing the building up to code for a high school is estimated at a fraction of the state's previous estimates.

So despite drawbacks -- including the fact that the college building could accommodate only half of Hartford Public's student population -- school and city officials say it is re-emerging as one of the city's best options to get the district's 12-year $859 million school renovation plan moving.

The community college's Woodland Street campus is expected to be empty by August or September, after moving downtown to the former G. Fox Building.

The report, dated Sept. 27, 2001, was never forwarded to Hartford school or city officials.

State Public Works Commissioner Theodore R. Anson, speaking before the report was released to The Courant, said Hartford officials lost interest in the Woodland Street building after he told them it would cost more than $9 million to renovate the building for a high school, so his department shelved the report.

But the study, conducted by the Farmington-based architecture and engineering firm Friar Associates and obtained through a freedom of information request, shows that the preliminary estimate to renovate the college is $6.85 million, rather than $9 million. It also shows that only a portion of that amount is attributable to improvements to meet building and fire codes and suggests the city could apply for waivers on some of the code work. The rest of the projected expense comes from general renovations, infrastructure improvements for heating, air conditioning and sprinklers and related soft costs, such as putting the project out to bid.

Five months after the report was finished, city and school officials are complaining that they never knew the document existed.

They concede, however, that they never asked for the documentation to support Anson's cost estimates to convert the building into a high school.

Anson was not in his office Monday and could not be reached. Department spokesman Patrick Nolan did not return a call seeking comment. Friar Associates also did not return calls.

Hartford officials have been wringing their hands since June over the need to find a temporary setting for high school; that is when bids to renovate Hartford Public came in $25 million over budget.

The architects handling the project say students must be moved out of the school to compress the construction schedule and bring costs down. Bids came in high, developers told the city, because the plan -- to renovate the school in phases over five years -- required them to guess at costs five years from now and to store materials for years during construction.

If the school is empty, the work could be done in a year or two.

The college building emerged as an instant favorite because it has a cafeteria, science and art labs, a large auditorium with a wooden floor that could be used as a gym, classrooms, a health suite and office space. School officials toured the building several times, said Al Hinds, the district's deputy chief of staff for building operations, but they could only guess at the building's capacity and the cost of converting it to a high school.

And when cost estimates from Anson's office came in higher than expected, even state Education Commissioner Theodore Sergi told Hartford officials to move on to other options, such as double sessions at Bulkeley and Weaver High Schools.

``My excitement over the report is that it's all quantified -- it's all here. Nobody's ever showed us this before,'' Hinds said. ``There's a wealth of information here that people can analyze.''

Other findings are more troublesome. The college can fit only about 712 students, for example, while Hartford Public has 1,400 students. And renovations to the college could take as long as two years and can't begin until the college moves.

Officials said those findings don't scare them, though.

D. Anwar Al-Ghani, a state-appointed school trustee and member of the school building committee created by the state legislature, said the district could shrink Hartford Public's population by accommodating the ninth grade at other sites, such as Quirk Middle School or in the city's other high schools. The ninth grade has 557 students, including those who repeat the grade. And if the classical academy were relocated, that would move another 232 students.

While school building committee members scoff at the report's cost estimate for renovations, they say even that amount may be a worthwhile expenditure, if the college ends up serving as a temporary site to house other schools during a decade of school renovations.

Lou Watkins, chairman of the building committee, said that if the district uses the college as revolving space to house elementary students while those schools are being renovated, it could save the city money in the long run by compressing construction schedules.

And it would be safer and quieter for students to be housed at the college, he said, rather than sharing space with construction workers.